prolapse after the menapause

Hi Trumper and welcome to WW,

I went through hell with severe vulva problems, complete uterine prolapse, and a cervical polyp all at the same time. I just kept doing the postural work, trying to understand how food related to my symptoms, and experimenting with different herbs. Pennyroyal sitz baths coincided with the polyp literally falling off into the toilet. I am almost 58 and have been drinking strong red clover tea twice a day for about three months. This has coincided with a definite shrinking of my uterus. I have been able to experience gradual shrinkage through the past few years, but this is yet another level. When I manually feel my cervix, it is about half the size it was when I first prolapsed around age 40. Many times now I cannot feel it at all when I walk. How amazing! It was a very, very difficult problem for years of my life and now seems insignificant. I hope you will experience permanent shrinkage too. I have such reverence for this amazingly strong and beneficial organ! If anyone’s uterus were to turn malignant from bumping and bouncing around during all these years it would’ve been mine! These are some of the lessons we hope to teach the world of women.

:) Christine

Hi Trumper

I have said this before, but I'll say it again and see what others think.

To put it in context I passed 12 months without menstruation in February this year. My cervix disappeared almost completely last year. It attracted the nickname 'Michael Jackson's nose', because it became short and pointy with no flesh around it, then disappeared completely into the vaginal wall. My doctor had trouble finding it for my PAP smear. At the moment it is more prominent again, but I have ceased monitoring it, so I don't know whether it comes and goes. I too have been drinking red clover tea for the last six weeks, so that might have something to do with it. I really don't know where my uterus is, but it must be quite small and hiding behind my cervix somewhere. It used to be retroverted but has been normal for a couple of years now. So mine might be doing what yours is doing.

I am wondering why you consider it a problem? Is it still giving your monthly symptoms, ie becoming POPpy on a monthly basis like it used to before a period?

I guess maybe I have come to a point of stability now where my POPs don't bother me greatly at all. My cervix always seems to be tucked away, almost out of reach . I do feel my cystocele sometimes, in my vulva, usually after I have been doing some activity out of posture, but I amend my activities and do some inversion or abdominal vacuum manoeuvres and it all goes normal again in no time.

The bottom line is that I think menopause is more fluid than we have been led to believe it is. Sure, there is a quieting of oestrogen and progesterone cycles, along with a steadying and overall increase in lutenising hormone and follicle stimulating hormone (to a point where eventually, all four hormones exhibit straight line graphs). But how FSH and LH affect the way our bodies work seems to be variable. Otherwise, why do different women experience different degrees, or even absence, of secondary signs of menopause, in both perimenopause and postmenopause, or even notice only that menstruation ceases? Maybe for a woman without POP, who has no active sex life, vaginal dryness is not an issue?

I think different bodies respond differently to all hormones. Some women have profuse and/or long periods while others have short and/or scant periods over their whole reproductive lives. There seems to be agreement that towards menopause bleeding will become scanter, but also that it may become heavier. It is stated that the menstrual cycle will become shorter, but also it may become longer. Many women experience all four of these characteristics at different parts of perimenopause. I certainly did at different parts of the ten years leading up to menopause!

I think cessation of menstruation, or rather the degree of endometrium that builds up in the first half of the cycle, varies between women, so the amount shed varies. I think the buildup may cease quicker in some women than others. This would explain why some women experience the unpleasant overheating/sweating/sleep disturbance/fuzzy brain/ genital dryness etc, mainly in perimenopause, while others experience it more postmenopause.

My conclusion is that cessation of menstruation is no more important than any of the other, less dramatic, signs of menopause. It is a *misnamed* part of our lives. For me, the emotional calmness, the disappearance of the swells and whitecaps, that gives me a much more constant view of people, and of life, better emotional equilibrium, that has been the overwhelming and useful change. I think Change of Life is a far more comprehensive description of this time of life. Menopause is not a day in your life when you celebrate an important 'non-anniversary'.

It is a gradual continuum, very much like adolescence through menarche, to adult womanhood, when she finally develops full-size hips and full-sized breast. Sure a girl/woman can conceive, bear and birth a baby any time after beginning menstruation, but that doesn't make her body completely mature. Her sexual hormones had been at work for a couple of years before she menstruated.

What I am saying is that your experience might be just *your* body's unique response to hormonal changes, and that this too will pass. On the other hand, I might have completely misunderstood your query.

Louise

So, as I read the above, it sounds like the smaller the uterus/cervix, the better. Which makes sense. I've been told a couple times, my uterus is very small (I've been post menopausal since '97). And, my cervix is elongated. Now, it sounds like the red clover tea could help shrink my cervix? Rather, than have it shaved shorter, according to one urogynecologist.

I so appreciate all that I've learned and continue to learn - natural is best.

Thanks for any input.

Yes, the smaller it is, certainly the less it is felt. No doubt there are a number of herbs that cause the uterus to shrink. This is something the FDA wants us to know nothing about, but I'm afraid it's like trying to hold back the ocean tide. The classic "wise woman" archetype must've resulted from efforts to treat symptoms of menopause. I was quite uninterested in herbs until the change of life - then began a desperate search for some semblance of balance. Pennyroyal sitz baths - just a strong tea of American pennyroyal - caused what I call "purging" and with it shrinkage. I do not know if others would have a similar experience.